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End of the Road Festival

Posted on 14th September 2015

End of the Road festival focuses on alternative music, folk in
particular, alt, country and Americana. It's a garden of Eden with
peacocks and peahens strolling about at a dignified pace. With an
air of haughtiness they peck on the crumbs of healthy gluten free,
vegetarian and vegan treats 100% unaware of the wonderful and
utterly exceptional music.

Once again Rokit was there to document it and sell some serious
stuff. It's a hard life, but someone has got to do it. Ahem, maybe.
Nights were unreasonably cold, but let's cut the b******t and get
straight to the point. Do you recognise these guys?

Pond

We interviewed Pond. Fact. And we didn't ask them anything about
their new album 'Man It Feels Like Space Again', because we were
given five minutes, and like it happens in dreams sometimes, we
thought: Well, what would you ask one of your favourite bands if
you only had five minutes? We decided to go with that. Turns out we
were determined to find out who they would take on Mars with them -
as you do, but also following the recent talks about Mars One
Mission (you see, we're not at all that random!) and among a couple
of other questions we also asked Nick if he had some recurrent
dream he might want to share with us. Now, if you are a fan of them
as much as we are, we can confess that we acted perfectly cool. No
overjoyous zeal and extra-hugging (a little bit of hugging only,
like, when I put one of our wonderful ethnic inspired necklaces on
Joe, and Jamie, and Nick), but aside from that, none of us cried or
threw themselves on the floor and screamed 'Walk on me!'. We should
have, perhaps. Too late now.

Let's keep things serious and festival minded. Seeing as
the Mars One crew is close to being selected, if you were going to
go to Mars, who would you take... to Mars?

Nick: Who would I take to Mars with me, well, like right now? If
I had to choose from my circle of friends right now…erm?

You can choose among people dead or alive.

Jamie: Nicholas Cage.

Nick: Probably take Amber. Amber Fresh*.

Jamie: Oh she's needed down here on Earth.

Nick: Oh actually no, I'm gonna scratch that. That's true.

Jamie: If you bring the bees and I'll bring Nicholas Cage, then
we'll just have constant hilarity there.

Nick: No, the bees need to be saved erm…

Jamie: Not all the bees

Nick: We'll take some bees, maybe they can help us out with our
new landscaping.

Have you got any crazy fan stories?

Nick: There's a postman in this festival who delivers like fan
things, and most of them, I mean it wasn't particularly wild or
interesting but it was really just straight up kind of 'I wanna
have your babies' and there was one that was just like really sort
of awkward, like trying to be extremely verbose but very lovely,
but erm…very full on.

How do you feel about that then: going from being a
normal guy having normal relationships to having people that are
obsessed with you, and suddenly want to throw themselves at
you?

Nick: Well it's always a bit of like touching and feeling.

Jaime: A little bit of foreplay!

Nick: It's just completely unreal. Devoid of any er connection
though, it's just like watching tv.

Do you find a way of shutting it out? Do you find a way
of not letting it get to your head?

Nick: There's no need to find a way, it's just like, if someone
you know grabs your arm and goes, (Nick does a funny big sexy lick
impression),I don't go like "Oh baby!". I don't know, I just sort
of look confused and then keep going about my life.

How important is the visual aspect to your
music?

Jamie: Well, we had our strongest looks of the tour today
because of you guys. It definitely was, and I for one felt amazing
with my boiler suit. We don't think about that shit very much
though. We'd like to have stronger looks. Today is where we wanna
be. All the time.

One last question: do you guys have a recurring dream
you've had at some point that you'd like to share with
us?

Nick: Oh mate, I had a very strange one, I had a dream last
night that um, we were playing a Pond gig, and it was going
awfully, and then the rest of the guys started playing a Tame
Impala song. I couldn't remember how to play it, even though I used
to play in the band - and I was sucking; and I tried to go sing it,
because it was just us, and I was just so bad. *aaargh* Then Kevin
came from side of stage, and everyone cheered and went "Yeeaah!",
and he like grabbed the mike and started singing and I was just
like relegated to the side. And then, just as a little side note,
Mac de Marco, he's a friend of ours - he was sitting down in the
little photographers' gutter, whatever trough do you call it, just
like a French duke on a chaise and I just went down there and lay
there and was like "Hey man, how's it going?", and that was the end
of the dream. And I woke up covered in sweat.

It's been so nice speaking to you. It's been a pleasure.
And even more so to see you live! Thank you for making time for
Rokit!

* Amber Fresh is a Perth based musician, artist and
writer who has recently published a book with Nick Allbrooks titled
'The Vine'.

Well guys, this might have made most people's day, but keep
reading because we were lucky enough to interview some more
incredible bands and talented people. Starting with Crushed Beaks,
going to the mesmerising Eaves and finishing it off with the
ethereal Dolores Haze. Here's what we've got. Enjoy.

Crushed Beaks

This trio based in London has their debut album Scatter
out now. Their music is described as 'a real, visceral, gut
punching collection of songs', and personally I haven't been able
to stop listening to 'Feelers', despite the fact that we missed
their gig. Oops, (we're a totally honest bunch here, just so you
know). What we can tell you for certain since the unfortunate
mishap is that these guys are quite down to Earth when it comes to
a good trip to Mars. NO kidding. Because that's what we asked them
too. In fact, Crushed Beaks would take on Mars with them the
following:

●Engineers

●A jungle guy ( possibly Ridley Scott, but not certain as of
yet)

●A mum

But as the conversation developed into new level of seriousness,
Crushed Beaks decided that no, they wouldn't want to go on
Mars anyway, not as the first generation - maybe the fourth, but
not the first. Fair enough you know. We agreed after all.

Their next London show is going to be at the Dalston Victoria on
the 22nd of September , so don't miss out on this opportunity!

Eaves

One can certainly feel a hype surrounding the Leeds based artist
Eaves, not only has be been invited to support Nick Mulvey
with his debut EP (As Old As The Grave). but he also got
signed to Heavenly earlier this year with his first EP, What
Green Feels Like and supported Kings of Leon on their Italian
tour..

His influences go from traditional folk to psychedelia and
metal, which makes him an utterly unique artist on the scene at the
moment and we love him.

The festival was winding down by the time we had a chance to
exchange a few words, but this doesn't mean we got any less
interesting answers to our slightly off-centre interview
questions.

So, this is a resume of the wonderful and magic things we have
learnt about Eaves.

'Eaves' comes from a line in Thomas Hardy short story 'Three
Strangers'.

Joe (aka Eaves), in the likely case scenario of being reborn
into something else would be reborn into a pigeon. You might not
care about this, but to us, it was a definite interesting choice.
It's about his scruffy nature and his omnivorous tendencies ' I
could eat anything', he tells us. Unfortunately we didn't go into
further detail.

And when asked about a recurrent dream, he told us about one he
used to have as a child. Joe, like me, has the ability to remember
nightmares in quite a lot of detail! For the purpose of this
article, and to make sure you read our final part, I can tell you,
in confidence and in brief (alas, I have to!), that Joe, as a
child,dreamt he could pretty much enter the grey curtains of his
bedroom. You heard me. And, there's more to it. These grey curtains
had a multicoloured geometrical pattern. These shapes too, he told
us, turned 3D, like abstract buildings. And well, he could walk
around this space, followed by a voice that, he continued, he could
sometimes hear during the day too - don't worry, we are all fine!
He's fine! But we shall never look at the pattern of curtains in
the same way. That's certain.

Enough of this! Here's a little treat for you guys, click
here
to watch the official video of Pylon, an amazing song on What
Green Feels Like. Isn't it dreamy?

Dolores Haze

Described as one of the 10 best sets at End of The
Road festival, Dolores Haze (what a great name
right?) are a guitar-driven Swedish four-piece with a grungy punk
sound. These riot girls have just finished playing in the UK,
following the launch of their first EP: Accidental.

Their song 'Haze' - with screeching vocals and fuzzy
guitar effects - has already made a name on the music scene of more
than just Sweden. I am sure we'll be seeing them again soon. After
all, our lovely Davy fell in love so hard with the ethereal Tyra
aka Groovy Fuck that an impromptu marriage was arranged
within a few hours of their first meeting (see the video if you
don't believe us!). And we can't but congratulate them on such an
irreverent improvised action. Totally Dolores Haze in more than
just one Lolita way!

The interview, a short casual exchange of random facts includes
two major pieces of information. Firstly, we want to warn Groovy
Nickz's boyfriend, Run! No, we're joking, but it
transpires that Groovy Nickz would take her boyfriend to
Mars 'because he would be too scared'! I guess that's funny (for
us, less for him). Then of course, Patti Smith was mentioned and
invited and I can fully understand the charm of such inspiring
company on Earth, Mars and any other planet. And secondly, when
asked to discuss their visual kind of look, Dolores Haze
were more than prepared. This is the list they all agreed on:
Gross/Disgusting, Naked (metaphorically, I think), In Love and
Drunk.

Which linked up very well with the end of the interview,
celebrated with an optional shot of vodka. We can certainly say
their look is a distinctive one and it was more than simply fun to
see them wearing Rokit on stage.

Here's some photos!

Thank you to the amazing people who have helped us through the
making, doing and organising of this journey! Thank you to the
inspiring artists we had a chance to meet, interview, talk to and
hug (hugs, mostly). Feel to enjoy this article if you have enjoyed
it, share share share!